Mark 4:9 - Ears to hear

4:9

Jesus was teaching in an indirect manner, as He was using parables. He was effective calling on those whose eyes and ears had been opened to hear what Jesus said, to understand it, and to act upon it. As we know Jesus used parables a lot, and in a quite unique way. Sometimes people argue that we should use parables as well, or something like them. Now to sometimes use imaginative ways to explain things, but we should also note that in Acts and the in the letters we do not find the apostles using parables, but a more traditional way of teaching. So we should beware of drawing erroneous conclusions!

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. Jesus said something like this on several occasions. He knew that when He taught some would hear what He had to say and understand it, others would be totally deaf to it, like the seed that fell on stony ground. This is the way things are. Sometimes we think that if people are not hearing what we are saying then it is our fault and need to make it more “relevant” or “accessible”, or, worst of all, tone it down (ie dilute Biblical truth). Now we should indeed seek to communicate clearly, but hearing the word of God is a spiritual matter, not just an intellectual or emotional matter. A person can only truly hear God’s word if the Spirit opens their mind to do so.

Isaiah 5:8-10 - Woe to you

5:8

The condemnation of Judah now gets more specific, with particular sins being singled out. Rich and powerful people acquired ever more wealth at the expense of the poor. It could be argued that a similar thing is happening in the West, with ever widening pay gaps between top and bottom. We need to understand that the Bible does not argue for a socialist state, and nor does it argue for a capitalist one either! There is nothing wrong with wealth in itself, where we go wrong is what we see wealth as being there for. We always to respect the lives and property of everyone. Indeed, property rights is one clear area of divergence between communism and the Bible. Communist states have a terrible habit of abolishing property rights, and this almost always results in famine. Community does matter, and the well being of all matters.

5:9,10

Decadent societies tend to build large houses. Even failed tinpot dictatorships will often have built themselves mansions or other extravagances while the rest of the population languished in poverty. Similar things seemed to have happened in Judah, well these mansions would become desolate. And the economy would collapse, with vineyards producing next to nothing.

Mark 4:1-8 - Parable of sower

4:1,2

Another lakeside rendezvous, and again Jesus gets into a boat, both to get some space, and to be better able to address the crowds, His voice carrying further because of the water.And yet again we see the emphasis on teaching. It seems that today we so often focus on “giving a show”, we need to give the word of God. Here Jesus gives one of His most famous parables. Jesus taught many things in parables. So while we focus on presenting the word of God, we do also need to think about how we do this. Many of us remember the parables,even people who are not Christians will remember some of the parables, if they are beyond a certain age (ie went to school when the Bible was still taught to some degree).

4:3-8

This is the parable of the sower. The farmer went out scattering seed. Some fell on the path, the path, was quickly taken up by the birds. Some fell on rocky ground where there was not much soil. It sprang up for a while, but as soon as things got tough it withered away because there was no depth to its roots. Other fell among thorns and never bore any fruit at all because of the competition of other things. But some fell on good soil and produced a rich harvest. Later Jesus will give an explanation of the parable. We will look at that when we get there, but there are two lessons that we will not be drawing from this because they are unbiblical nonsense. The first is that we should seek to sow on good soil. Jesus does not teach that, this parable does not teach that, the Bible as a whole does not teach that. It does teach that we should watch our own lives so that we are good soil, but God sends His word to all, and it will get all sorts of reactions. The second lesson we are not going to draw is the prosperity non-gospel teaching about getting thirty, sixty or hundred fold return on giving. The parable has nothing whatsoever to do with that.

Isaiah 5:5-7 - I will take away its hedge

5:5,6

So God now tells them what He will do. Men so often argue as if we are in charge, as if God will do nothing. This is a monumental mistake to make. “I will tell you what I will do”. The land had been protected, this protection would be removed. They did not want to trust in God, so all help from God would be taken away. We might say that the same is happening in the West. We do not want our Christian heritage, so the Christian foundations of society will be taken away, and we will suffer the consequences. Briars and thorns will grow, instead of culture, peace and democracy.

5:7

Isaiah now states quite clearly, just in case anyone had missed the point, that the vineyard was the nation of Israel. While Israel was divided between the southern (Judah) and northern kingdoms, this division was always temporary, and not part of God’s eternal plan. So prophets sometimes referred to Israel. However, Isaiah was addressing Judah directly, and the events that he was going to be talking about were most directly relevant to Judah. The people of Judah needed to know that God had expected good fruit from them, justice and righteousness, but had found only bloodshed and cries of distress. Judah needed to respond.

Mark 3:31-35 - Who are my mother and brothers

3:31

Jesus’ mother and brothers came. One wonders what His mother was thinking, for she had had all the experiences surrounding His conception and the birth, with the various angelic appearances. They may have been acting out of trying to spare the family further embarrassment, or to protect Jesus. When a person is led by the Spirit the family will often not understand.

3:32-35

The crowds told Jesus that His mother and brothers were here looking for Him. Jesus, as He often did, gave them a surprising reply. He pointed at the those sat around Him and declared that they were His mother and brothers. Relationships based on faith in Him are more important than natural relationships. Jesus came to save the whole world. Note the various implications as well. By listening to Jesus people were doing the will of God. Those coming to Jesus to learn or to be healed are doing the will of God.

Isaiah 5:3,4 - What more could I have done for you?

5:3,4

Back in 1:18 God had called on the people to come and reason together with Him. Everyone could agree that things were in a mess, but whose fault was it? Was it God’s fault? This is at once a ridiculous suggestion, even a presumptuous one, yet one that is held by many people. Actually it is usually self-defeating, or used as a reductio ad absurdum argument. Ie if there was a God He would not have allowed such a mess to occur, there is such a mess, therefore there is no God. The flaw in the argument is the assumption that He would not have allowed such a mess to occur. God gave man responsibility, so that implies the possibility of “such a mess” occuring. There is also a flaw in “there is such a mess”. There is indeed “such a mess”, but that does not necessarily mean that this is the final destination, and the Bible points to an infinitely better future. And the prophecy of Isaiah is a prime example of that, and also reveals something of how such a future can possibly  happen.

If it is not God’s fault, the other possibility is that it is our fault, or in the particular case of Isaiah, Israel’s fault. God asks them if there is anything else He could have done? He gave them a good land, He gave them the Law, He tended the vineyard. Yet when He came to look for fruit all He found was evil.

Mark 3:27-30 - Binding the strongman

3:27

The teachers of the law were trying to make out that Jesus’ casting demons out was a sign that He was using demonic power. Having just demonstrated the ridiculousness of their argument, Jesus now goes on to say that casting out demons is one of the very things that one would expect the Messiah to do. Jesus came to set people free. The implication of what Jesus is saying is that people were held captive by Satan (the strongman) and Satan needed to be dealt with in order to set these people free.

3:28,29

These two verses are problematic, for no one is quite sure what blaspheming the Holy Spirit means. Most tend to go for saying it is attributing to Satan what is the work of the Holy Spirit, or for deliberately sinning against God. Jesus begins this statement with “truly I say to you”. This is an indication that what Jesus is about to say needs to be taken most seriously. So we cannot just ignore these verses as being too difficult to make sense of. The first part (v28) is straightforward, meaning that people can be forgiven all sorts of things. This does not mean they will be overlooked, there does need to be repentance. Then we get the difficult bit. This is directed at the teachers of the Law, who were keen on thinking themselves better than the general population, who weren’t really that godly (in the eyes of the Pharisees etc).  Jesus is saying that actually it is the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who really need to watch themselves.

3:30

“They were saying He has an unclean spirit”. The teachers of the law insulted Jesus, they did this because they had no reasoned argument against Him. We find exactly the same thing happening with LGBT debates. Rather than engaging with the reasoned arguments of those presenting a rational case, proponents of Biblical morality and worldview are accused of being bigots.